Stygian Mage

Soren’s spell <Acid Needles> was made to do sustained damage, but it was only applicable to someone who was strong enough to actually struggle against the spell. This target of Soren was as weak as a chicken in front of him and so, he died without knowing even anything.

………

Soren came out of the building and walked away with calm steps, while the frozen guard stood there ‘sleeping’. He had done this a few time and already had some experience on how to handle the getaway from the crime scene.

He didn’t take the picture of that man before as his proof of killing, and it was the right choice to do so; given the circumstances surrounding the scene. But he had to prove that he was the one who killed him to get his reward and so, he took out his communicator and sent a detailed message to the Vultures. It contained the place, time and, the way that man died. Everything in that message was something that only the killer would know; this was his proof for the reward.

After finished sending the message, Soren kept the communicator back in his pocket and decided on what to do next.

He still had some missions left, for which he had asked the other member’s help. He didn’t know they would finish it or not so he was trying to decide if he should wait for their message, which he didn’t know would come, or go finish the job himself.

Beep!

Suddenly, his communicator rang.

Soren checked it with some anticipation and found that he had indeed received some messages on the messenger of the ‘Wandering Wolves’.

They were fairly simple messages. Or it should be said that they only contained one thing.

“Kill confirmed”

“Killed”

“Killed”

“Done”

“Job done”

They all conveyed basically the same thing. Apart from that, they also contained a picture attached in the message, confirming the kill. Now, all Soren had to do was get the reward using those pictures. He didn’t even have to contact the Vultures for those jobs as he knew that they would have already been cleaned; bodies either turning into ash or disappearing by liquifying.

A small smile formed on Soren’s face as he kept the communicator back in his pocket. It felt nice when you could rely on someone—this was what he was feeling right now. The other members had already finished all his assassin missions, and as he had nothing more to do right now, he made his way towards his hotel to get some rest.

Beep!

Suddenly, his communicator rang again.

This time it was the Vultures who had contacted him. It was the confirmation message that they had checked that club out and confirmed that he had killed the target. And at the end of the message, they had written one sentence—‘Be careful’.

Their message didn’t really surprise Soren as he could guess their reason behind the ‘Be Careful’. From what he could tell, it was mostly because the one he had killed just now was someone quite important in a Family. And from the mission details, he also knew the family name: Abbate Family.

He was a little bit concerned about it but didn’t think too much. He hadn’t left any clue on the scene and the only way that Family could figure out that it was him would be if the Liston Family gave him up: Of which he was pretty sure they wouldn’t.

……….

Soren reached the hotel very soon and found a young guy sitting behind the reception desk as he entered through the entrance door. It was the guy who worked here together with Leah but had a different shift. Soren had seen him a few times before and they had also greeted each other on occasions.

Same as always, Soren greeted him and went on his way towards his room. But as he went into the elevator, he failed to notice the anger hidden in that young man’s eyes. It was quite well hidden but at that point, it had flared up. Somehow, his anger seemed to be pointed towards Soren, who was unaware of all this and went to his room.

Entering his room, Soren found out that Leah was already gone. It was already morning by now so that made sense. He actually wanted to continue what they did last night so, he was slightly disappointed after seeing her gone.

Changing into comfortable clothes, he lay down on the bed and closed his eyes. He needed some rest right now so he decided to sleep for a while before going to report his missions.

……….

Waking up late in the afternoon, he first freshened up his hazy mind with some cold water on his face. He then cleaned himself up and changed his clothes, planning to head out.

Before doing that, he checked his status once.

He had almost recovered from the last fight and at most, it would take him another day to recover completely. Finished with checking his status, he went on his way to get his rewards.

Walking on the familiar path reminded him of what he had experienced there. He could feel something cold inside of his mind every time he thought about that day: it was bare naked killing intent.

But he knew he couldn’t act on that intent, at least not right now; if he wanted to live.

Removing those thoughts from his head, he went inside the building and found that old man again.

“You’re back. Did you finish all of them already?” The old man said in a slightly surprised manner as he saw Soren walk in through the door.

Soren simple nodded in reply and handed the communicator to the old man, who confirmed the pictures of the targets. He was once again quite surprised that Soren could finish so many missions in such a short time, but he didn’t say anything this time.

He was not sitting in that position just to get surprised every time someone did something like this; that was not his job. And mostly, he didn’t care much about these issues either. He already had many things on his mind such as the problem he encountered today while he was gathering Mana.

But since he was supposed to do this job, he temporarily removed those thoughts and started calculating the reward for all the missions that Soren had done.

Soren knew it would take some time so he opened the panel on the table again while the old man finished his calculations.

“Ah, you killed this guy too!” Finally, something interesting had caught the old man’s eyes.

Soren heard the surprised sound of the old man and checked out the picture he was pointing at. It was the guy Soren had killed last night in the club. The picture that old man was pointing at was from the mission detail as Soren couldn’t take the confirmation picture last night.

“Yeah, the Vultures should have confirmed that,” Soren explained as he thought that was what the old man meant by his words.

“Hmm, it is there but….do you know who he is?” The old man asked even though he already knew the answer to that.

“Someone important from the ‘Abbate Family’” Soren answered as he remembered this from the young man’s details.

“No, he is important to someone important in the Abbate Family.” The old man said as after hearing Soren.

Soren had a puzzled expression on his face as he listened to the old man. He already knew that guy was someone important, so this new weird information didn’t really surprise him that much. But he was slightly puzzled as to why the old man had suddenly mentioned this. It was not like he hadn’t killed someone important before.

“He is the….was the lover of Abbate Family’s eldest daughter.” The old man said while correcting himself on the living status of the young man.

Soren’s puzzlement increased even further after hearing this. He was not even someone from the Family so what was the fuss about. Though one question did pop up into his mind as heard all this—why the Liston Family would target someone like that?

The old man saw Soren’s expression and knew what he was thinking. Though he didn’t really want to butt in into all of this, he did it anyway; seeing this as a gesture of some goodwill which might have some good result for the problem he was facing. He knew it was mostly impossible but he did it anyway.

And so, he explained everything to Soren.

“It’s not a mission from the Family.*sigh* It was a personal mission issued in the name of the Family. Someone had a grudge against the Abbate Family’s eldest daughter, so she used this way to get back at her.”

After hearing those words, Soren was suddenly enlightened and then, his expression became irritated as he thought of someone who could have a grudge against Abbate Family’s eldest daughter.

“Yeah, you thought right. It’s Young miss Denise.” The old man confirmed what Soren was thinking and looked at him with a weird expression but was also slightly amused inside.

The incident that happened between Soren, Denise and her friends was not a secret. It was known to almost everyone that was even remotely related to them.

Soren was gritting his teeth and had a frustrated expression on his face as he thought about what he had done. He had, unknowingly, done that woman a favor. Of course, even if he hadn’t done that, someone else would have taken up the mission. But it didn’t change the fact that he felt absolutely irritated right now.

Then he remembered what the Vultures had messaged him last night and asked the old man about it.

“…..That woman from the Abbate Family is a little bit on the crazy side, and if she finds out that you had killed the one she loved….well….even I am not sure what she would do.” The old man said as the image of that crazy woman went through his head.

“Why do I need to be afraid of her? She is only one person.” Soren retorted.

“Say that when you break through to Rank 1.” The old man also retorted with his own words.

“She is Rank 1!” Soren said as his eyes went wide.

“Well….No, but the people she controls or more like her father controls are, and she has total command over them.” The old man slightly changed his words to convey his meaning properly.

And this time, Soren had no words to retort that.

“You should stay out of town for a while. At least till things cool down.” The old man suggested as a gesture of goodwill. He was slightly fond of this young ‘Traveler’ and didn’t really want him to die; though, even he didn’t know why he was fond of this young man.

“I was planning on going to the jungle anyway so I might as well go earlier, I guess.”

Soren was already planning on going to the jungle to hunt for Beast Cores and sell them for crystals. The assassination missions had already decreased quite a bit and there wasn’t any high paying job left in that area.

Finished with their talk, they both started doing their own stuff.

Soren opened the mission panel and selected some of the hunting missions. He was going to the jungle anyway, so he could earn some extra crystals while he was at it. Accepting the missions, he looked at the old man who was now calculating the reward for his completed missions.

………

Soren came out of the building with a bulging crystal pouch in his pocket. He had received a total of 60 Mid-Grade Mana Crystals for the assassination missions. Now, the total amount of Crystals he had was around 11,100 Low-Grade Mana Crystals, which came to be around 111 Mid-Grade Mana Crystals.

Although it was a lot, it was still not enough for the auction as he still had to pay the captain.

The old man had also given him some information about the stuff that had been happening in the Family recently; mainly out of ‘goodwill’ which could help him with his own problem.

Unsurprisingly, it was about the clash between the Families for the Vestige; though the old man didn’t mention anything about the Vestige.

Apparently, none of the Families could enter the Vestige right now and were camped around it. As such, the fight between them was inevitable and it had become a daily thing right now. Many of the high level experts had also been deployed from all the Families; including Liston Family.

Other news which was somewhat surprising for Soren was that the Rogue Initiators had also started gathering there and were constantly clashing with the Initiators from the Families.

Most of the information didn’t really concern Soren right now but it was better to know about it, so he was grateful for that; though he didn’t say anything about it to the old man.

After collecting his thoughts, Soren made his way towards the market area. He needed to buy some supplies if he wanted to go out in the jungle.

………..

Soren finished his shopping which cost him around 50 crystals—bullets for his gun costing the most. He had finished all his preparation already so he decided to just leave for the jungle directly from the market; he already had everything with him in his backpack.

And so, he walked through the familiar town gate and made his way towards the jungle. He could see some carts moving on the path and some people, like him, moving on foot.

He didn’t pay much attention to all that and just kept walking towards the jungle.

……………

The sun was already showing signs of going down, signifying the arrival of dusk.

One person moved through the corridors of the Liston Family’s mansion with the red sun casting their shadow through the window on the side.

Knock! Knock!

The person stopped in front of a room with a large door and gently knocked on it. From the actions of this person, one could tell that they were somewhat nervous.

“Come in,” An authoritative voice came from the room which allowed that person on the door to enter.

“Have you finished your job?”

“Y-Yes, but it might take some time to know…” That person replied with a nervous, shivering, and yet a gentle voice.

“That’s fine. But you will only receive your reward after it is thoroughly successful.” The authoritative person said with a slightly delighted tone which didn’t match his words. He seemed to be quite happy that his plan was successful.

“I-I know, it’s just that…..” There was a hint of hesitation in that person’s voice.

“Is there something wrong?” Ervin Liston, who was the owner of that authoritative voice, asked while trying to sound gentle. He didn’t want to frighten the person in front of him and destroy his almost successful plan.

“Cole is…..N-no it’s nothing.” Leah, who was the other person in this conversation, tried to say something but, in the end, decided against it.

“Hmm? Anyway, take this.” Ervin also didn’t pressure her and simply handed her a crystal pouch.

“This is a simple gift from me. Until it is confirmed, you can have fun with this. Go now and please be careful with your health.” He continued as he sent Leah out of his room while being genuinely concerned about her. His plan was completely based on her so it was not weird for him to be worried about her health.

Leah silently accepted the pouch with trembling hands, respectfully bowed towards Ervin and then went out of the room. Both of her hands were clutching the pouch as if she was afraid someone would take it away from her. While grabbing the pouch in her hands, she went towards the exit with quick and hurried steps.

.……….

Soren moved through the jungle, in search of a prey. He was on the outskirts right now, so he knew he might not get any stronger beast there. That’s why he was planning to move in deeper. He did meet some small animals while walking through the jungle but they were mostly normal animals and not worth any money, so he didn’t take any action. These animals did not cultivate Mana and were extremely weak; especially against an Initiator.

Soon, though, he met a beast which did pose a threat to Initiators; albeit, only to the ones who were low leveled. Soren would have ignored this beast if it did not initiate a nostalgic feeling inside him.

It was dark right now and the night predators were already out to hunt. Soren was expecting a clash with some night predators but he hadn’t expected it would be this one. The beast in front of Soren right now was the same one which he had fought against on his first night in this world.

It looked like a dark panther, just with three eyes. The only difference with the beast that Soren was familiar with was that this one had two tails instead of one and was slightly bigger than the last.

“Rank 0: Layer 3”

The result from the scan made Soren smile unintentionally.

GRRRR!!

The beast growled at Soren and got into position to charge at him. Stinking saliva fell from its mouth as it kept snarling with lips apart.

Somehow, the beast’s actions seemed a little cute in Soren’s eyes.

“Shadow Chain”

Soren brought out his Soul Form and swiftly casted his spell without waiting for the beast to act.

Swoosh!!

A black chain came out of the shadows around him and rushed at the beast at a high speed. The chain’s speed was so fast that the beast couldn’t even react in time, and….

ROAR!!

The sharp end of the chain pierced the beast’s opened mouth which it had opened to roar.

Thud!

The beast lost its vision slowly and fell down on the ground with a thud; slowly drifting off to eternal sleep. Coincidentally, Soren killed this beast by piercing its mouth too.

He smiled while watching this scene. He realized that had grown a lot since last time. Now, his <Shadow Chain> spell, which was meant to entangle and control the enemy, could easily kill someone of this level. The Mana Cost of the spell had also decreased a lot now and he could easily cast this spell a few times in succession. By mastering the spell and making it an Innate Spell, together with his skill ‘Mana Manipulation’, Soren had brought its Mana Cost to [Low].

From his experience up till now, Soren had figured out the range which corresponded to these values.

For Mana Cost, it was something like this:

-Negligible [More than 0% - Less than 1%]

-Very Low [1% - 5%]

-Low [6% - 10%]

-Average [11% - 25%]

-High [26% - 50%]

-Very High [51% - 80%]

-Extremely High [81% - 100%]

-Exceeds User’s current Mana Reserve.

And for Health status, it was something like this:

-Dead [0%]

-Severely Wounded/Severe Soul Damage [1% - 9%]

-Heavily Wounded/Heavy Soul Damage [10% - 39%]

-Moderately Wounded/Moderate Soul Damage [40% - 74%]

-Lightly Wounded/Light Soul Damage [75% - 99%]

-Healthy [100%]

……….

Soren swiftly took out the Beast Core and then walked away. Although he couldn’t call himself the strongest, at least on the outskirts of the jungle, there was almost no beast that could beat him.

Soren walked for a while, then casted <Create Undead> and created a Zombie Wolf for his ride. Using it as transportation, he went towards the direction of the cave he had previously stayed in. He was planning to stay the night there and then move in deeper in the jungle the next morning.

It didn’t take him long to reach the cave. The night predators on the outskirts didn’t dare to attack him because of the Zombie Wolf.

His Undead’s power was completely based on his own strength. In other words: if he got powerful, his undead would get powerful; and the more powerful they became, the more the aura of death, that they released, became stronger.

Though, this aura of death had no use except for warding off weak beasts. It was something like a smell that the undead released which was useless except for its effect of keeping the weak beasts away.

Of course, if Soren had increased his physical stats instead of the ones that affected his spell casting, the undeads wouldn’t have changed even a bit; they were completely dependent on Soren’s Mana, Intelligence, and Spirit.

Right now, his spellcasting stats easily rivaled any Spell Caster of Layer 9. Adding on top of it the effect of his Stygian Grimoire, it would not be wrong to say that his ability as a Spell Caster would be amongst the best in Rank 0.

The most important thing was….that he still had room to grow in Rank 0.